Editorial: A dream worth sharing

Expansion of pioneering An Achievable Dream program a valuable pursuit

February 27, 2013

Aubrey Layne has big plans for An Achievable Dream.

The brainchild of founder Walter Segaloff, the school provides education and a whole lot more to economically disadvantaged students in Newport News. During the past two decades, the school has expanded from an after-school tennis and tutoring program into a year-round, extended-day program serving students from kindergarten through high school. Mr. Layne takes over its presidency on Friday.

Basic funding for the school comes through the Newport News School District, but private donations pay for the additional $2,200 per student required to provide extras such as conflict resolution, healthy living and ethics.

In 2012, for the second consecutive year the high school had a 100 percent graduation rate. Area businesses have supported An Achievable Dream because they recognize its value to the greater community: By keeping students in school and helping them reach college or trade school, they are able to find jobs and becoming contributing members of their communities.

Mr. Layne is working on replicating the model in Virginia Beach. Depending on logistics a new school with kindergarten through second grade could be open as early as 2014. Local businesses have expressed interest in supporting it financially — obviously a critical component for the school's sustainability.

We hope the Virginia Beach venture is as successful as the school in Newport News, which has 20 years of leadership, networking and financial support behind it. Ideally, similar programs would be installed throughout Hampton Roads. However, any further expansion should be pursued with a view of strengthening the program as a whole without sacrificing any of the programs that are already working well.

Expanding school choice

And taking it a step further, at some point An Achievable Dream might want to examine whether operating as an independent school, not bound by public school limitations and restrictions, would better facilitate fulfillment of its mission.

The school's model could work well within a private network, supported primarily by donations and grants. Virginia's Educational Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit program, signed into law last year, provides a tax credit to donors of need-based tuition scholarships for K-12 students equal to 65 percent of the donation. For businesses, this is a better option than a charitable deduction because it offers a greater incentive to private investment in educating our future workforce.

Public education reforms — allowing longer school days and school years, providing merit pay to teachers who excel and installing an evaluation system that weeds out poor teachers—are essential if our students are going to be prepared to compete in the global economy.

But reforms can be a long, slow process. Students who are stuck in low-performing schools without realistic options to transfer are losing valuable learning time. While reforms are being pursued over the long term, we need to give families more choices now.

Interestingly, alternative schools that are funded through private donations and tax credits can provide a competitive incentive for existing schools to improve their performance. A Northwestern University study of Florida's tax credit program found that schools that faced greater threats of losing students to private schools actually improved their test scores more than schools with fewer threats.

Imagine if every child could have the opportunity to attend a school like An Achievable Dream, where lifelong success is a top priority. We could go a long way toward addressing major societal problems that have eluded us, such as dropout rates, gangs, drug use, crime, incarceration rates, and poverty.

An Achievable Dream has proved that solutions are possible if we invest our public and private education dollars wisely, one child at a time.